21 - Self-intervening Networks

Summary

Introduction

In this chapter, we discuss some of the differences between apparatus and systems under observation (SUOs). The discussion is phrased in terms of self–intervening networks, wherein partial quantum outcomes in an early stage of an apparatus can alter future configurations of that apparatus.

To explain what we mean, we introduce the following classification of experiments. Note that reference to apparatus here includes real and virtual detectors, and real and virtual modules. Virtual detectors and modules are mathematical fictions that are introduced into the formalism for convenience.

Type-Zero Experiments

Many important experiments involve signal propagation through “empty space.” We classify these as type zero (T0). The feature of T0 experiments qualifying for this classification is that the observer has no control of the modules in the information void. Examples are experiments in astrophysics, where the observer can choose which source to observe and how they observe it, but has no influence on the physical properties of whatever lies between source and detector. If there are gas clouds between source and detector, the observer can only recognize that fact after the experimental data are analyzed. An important modern variant of T0 experiments involves map location via the Global Positioning System (GPS): signals sent from Earth to geostationary satellites and received by mobile devices back on Earth have traveled through Earth's atmosphere and through empty space, where special relativistic and general relativistic effects have to be taken into account (Ashby, 2002).

Before the rise of experimental science, most “experiments” were based on visual observations, which are principally of T0 classification. The advent of the telescope and the microscope did not change things in this respect. Indeed, it has been suggested that science did not progress in antiquity precisely because of the philosophical principle that the only valid experiments could be of T0, as these do not introduce the artificiality of constructed modules into observation, which (it was argued) would give a false perspective on “reality.” The logic of that argument is superb, but it is a dead-end principle in science.

Several sciences such as geology, archaeology, and, indeed, cosmology started off with periods of basic observation rather than experimentation. During such initial stages of these sciences, the observations could be classified as T0 experiments.